This moody hip hop cut sounds like it could have come straight out the late ’90s underground. But 20-year-old producer Bagir wouldn’t even have been ten by that point. His smokey beat on “Babylonian Nights” is comprised of a jazzy instrumentation flipped on the mysterious tip, all surreal and dangerous. Meanwhile, Toronto’s Sense I matches that with a picturesque, streetlamp-lit tale full of dense rhymes, a smooth voice and a chill delivery. If dudes like this were in the spotlight more often, maybe backpacking would never have become a dirty word.

The song is part of an unfinished album from 2007. We have no idea why it remains unreleased, but now it’s free for y’all! Bagir, who resides in Virginia and has played the djembe since he was a kid, was featured on our last mixtape and you can be sure to hear more diverse styles from him around here in the future. (Photo by Patrick Boury)

Reverse Engineering’s “Instant Art” is almost industrial in its use of distortion, mechanical sounds and its militant, marching beat. Visions of towering blocks of grey, wet buildings definitely come to mind. But there’s also a touch of the boom bap and it shares an atmosphere similar to that of subtler dubstep. “Art” has a simple but progressing lamellophone-sounding melody with a couple layers and some haunting vocals similar to Bjork. (When exactly to biting her become a ’style’ of singing?) There’s even some turntablism, which adds to the composition a scratchy, analog melody that fits the song’s overall soundscape. You can definitely hear the Company Flow influences in this one. It was featured on the Swiss outfit’s newest release, Highly Complex Machinery, and was released through Jarring Effects records, which was cool enough to lace us with this download for you. (They also put out Filastine’s Dirty Bomb.) Although you can’t cop Machinery on sites like Juno if you live in the US, you can buy it or any of the songs from it at CD1D, a French DIY platform. (Photo by March and Meffre).

Using Predator-like drones, private military contractors remotely defend water reserves in Mexico from drought stricken locals to a soundtrack by Nacional Records. This all-too-possible near future set to a nasty beat is the vision of Sleep Dealer, a Spanish language science fiction film written and directed by Alex Rivera.

It premiered in NYC last April, which makes it ancient in internet time, but we had to post something about it. The thoughtfulness of Rivera, who resides in New York and first filmed the Sixth Section documentary for PBS, charts the genre into unlikely territory. By addressing current political and environmental issues, he grounds it in reality. And he avoids diving into fantasy by exploring technology that seems probable in the near future and in need of serious discussion. All this brings the movie closer to social commentary than mere entertainment.

As for the soundtrack, it features a number of good songs that have since been released for free in one form or another. Bomba Estereo’s “Raza” made its psychedelic Cumbia debut here. It’s since been released as an MPFree over at NYRemezcla (hastily compiled English translation after the jump). The album also included the Latin dub stylings of Fidel Nadal’s “Puerta De Oro (Con Pablo Lescano)”. That was more recently part of the free Nacional Records Sampler 2009. Nortec Collective’s “Tijuana Sound Machine” and “Discoteca Nacional” were also on the soundtrack.

Race (Raza) - Bomba Estereo (lyrics translated to English)

Race…

If you ask yourself where it came from
If half from the sea
If half from the river
I like singing to my friends
Sing to the wind, to the heat and the cold
To reach you I would love to
(My) political stance: undefined
(My) relationship status: stable and single
(My) perfect drink: cold beer, hey!

And my speech is not very easy and it’s not written down
But whoever wants to know, I’ll explain it
I multiply with the percussion
I ring and ring that’s why I criticize you
I’m not a fan of protest
However, I respect your project
It’s just that kind of analysis which sometimes stinks
That you complain and don’t do anything is what bugs me

And that’s the way my race is
My folklore
And this is the cumbia that I sing to you
And that’s the way my race is
My folklore
From deep within the heart
And that’s the way my race is
My folklore
And this is the cumbia that I sing to you
And that’s the way my race is
My folklore

I was not born a rasta, no
And I’ll say that upfront
But I grew up in the sea
Very close to the people
With the sun strong at 2:20
When the sweat gets hot
And sometimes I complain about the president
About dumb women, about the smart ones
I don’t want to sing to those who are absent
I want to sing to those who are present

I don’t have a valid visa or passport
But I want my music to reach other continents
Those who speak English
Those who don’t understand it
If I can’t travel let the music try to
Hot, upfront, so that it explodes
Yes! This music is for intelligent people For Bogota and for Baranquilla
I like cumbia because it is simple listennn!
Because it’s simple listennn!
Because it’s simple listennn!

And that’s the way my race is
My folklore
And this is the cumbia that I sing to you
And that’s the way my race is
My folklore
From deep within the heart
And that’s the way my race is
My folklore
And this is the cumbia that I sing to you
And that’s the way my race is
My folklore
My folklore
My folklore
My folklore
My folklore
My folklore
And this is the cumbia that I sing to you
That’s the way my race is
That’s the way my folklore is
(My race) And this is the cumbia that I sing to you
And this is the music that I sing

So you like Rock
I like Santa Marta’s, yeah!
Oh, for my neighborhood

Listen, man
This is the house
This is the house
When you want to come on by

And that’s the way my race is
And that’s the way my race is
And that’s the way my race is
And that’s the way my race is

(Thanks to Ricardo for transcribing this.)

Barney Iller is a Brooklyn hype man of sorts, but he still doesn’t understand why New York doesn’t have more music producers. He calls BK’s “Fort Stuylliamsburg” (Clinton Hill?) home, and labels it the “epicenter of the Brooklyn underground.” In fact, “the Brooklyn underground party scene,” Iller adds, “is among the best if not the best in the world, and most people would have no idea where to look for it.”

Yet he still can’t figure out why there’s not more producers here killing it: “New York rules, but the one area I feel we lag in is a community of producers. There are super talented people here too, so I think busy schedules are partly to blame, and partly that there wasn’t already a tight community of producers for people to glom onto when they arrived on the scene.”

His music is part of a new fusion of pan-Latino and tropical sounds with electronic and other contemporary influences. He credits the interest in this style of music in New York “to individuals with a passion for promoting it such as Geko Jones and Uproot Andy of Que Bajo.” But he also notes that this kind of scene “only exists right now, I think, because of the small handful of talented producers worldwide carving out a new genre, making really killer new music.” Here’s a couple tracks he hit us off with to share with y’all:

In “Underworld Merengue“, gold plated NES tomb raiders hyped up on pixelated tamboras make a mad dash for underground dancefloors. It’s a frenetic combination of Dominican-birthed beats, dark ’80s sample-play nostalgia, and washboard-grated analog basslines. The smoother and more organic “Tamborito Breaks” pairs horns and fuzzy, amelodic jaw harp styles with persistent clappers and big bass strings. It’s an edit of “Tamborito Swing” by Los Silvertones, released last year on the Panama! compilations by the excellent Soundway Records. (Aztec Calendar installation by Fernando Mastrangelo.).

Ghostly International just released a free instrumental hip hop EP by Brooklyn’s own Mux Mool called Viking Funeral. It’s a promo of his also recently released single, Lady Linda, which itself is a promo of Mool’s upcoming full length, Skulltaste. (Did we even get all that right?)

The track featured here, from the EP, is a good example of the disco downbeat popular with Brooklyn beatmakers like homeboy, Eliot Lipp and Machinedrum. It’s full glittering melodies, fuzzy bass and a doors of perception keyboard solo. With full bravado, the rhythm hits the beat at the very last possible chance.

But the star of them all is “Hog Knuckles“, the B side on the single, with its meticulously layered melodies and richness of composition. Stuttering, chopped and repurposed guitar melodies lay the foundation on top of a wonky, wavering beat of clacking percussion and hollowed out bass kicks. Synths uttering melodic nonsensical computer speak and crushed keyboards flesh the rest out. Overall, it gives the impression that the song was the last drops of music squeezed out of a pile of discarded, yet recently valuable hardware. That’s the one you gotta buy. “Lady Linda”’s sputnik satellite styles and latch clasping percussion are actually available for free at RCRDLBL. Also, in case you missed it, Mux Mool’s most recent Moongadget effort “NAFE” was pretty good, so cop that too. (Photo by Tuftsmania.)

We first heard this joint a few months back on a mix at Eddie STATS‘ blog, and have been drooling over it ever since. It’s a Sizzla refix, featuring a beat by Damon Alexander called the “String Dub Riddim”. Eventually, it’ll feature the vocals of Miss Cherry, but he just couldn’t wait to let people hear it, so he laced the Sizzla lyrics over it, and BOOM, here we are. Up for freeload! Together, Damon and Cherry are called De Tropix. Warp Records has offered them a deal, and they’re currently trying to negotiate the details. “Either way,” he says, “we’ll still be doing tunes, so whatever happens it’s all about the music.” You might remember the De Tropix “So Blessed” blend? Well that riddim is about to get mixed down with original lyrics by Cherry and Natalie Storm. (Image by Mickey Duzyj.)

Chip Chop drops a new EP on Tuesday called Launch Blank. This is lazer bass fueled boom bap that uses an almost entirely electronic and heavy sound palette. It’s like digital woodshop, where the deep whir of engines fill the space, buzzsaw bass slices chip boards to the perfect shape, and nail gun drum pads hold everything in place. A mist of glitchy sawdust hangs in the air. The textures of this album are likely to take on a larger than life presence in the club, but there’s enough layers, warmth and progressiveness to keep it interesting during headphone listening, too. We streamed the neck-breaking title track “Launch Blank” a while back when it was featured on the Motion Sickness mixtape. But their label, Run Riot Records, recently released it for free download as a promo, so here it is again. (The gold-toothed, cancerous HTML character featured on the cover fits the sound of the EP perfectly.)

Heinali’s diverse mix of self produced music, loosely tethered together by dubstep, is so deep it resides underground the lowest layers of the ocean. The variety of rhythms, eclectic percussive choices, and scope of instrumentation are evident in the ever changing stalagmite soundwave that floats by so swiftly. The warm basslines powering this trip ripple in the underwater river. An infusion of organic elements in the sound palette glows in the background with an otherworldliness. The second half of this mix is our favorite, but standout cuts are “Blame You”, “Spivanochka” and “Ghost of a Chance“. You can download most of this mix for free at his bandcamp page. He also composes contemporary classical music, and makes a blend of electronic and classical music called classitronic. (Photo by Ian Sewell).

Emancipator, who’s been featured from time to time on this blog over the last few years, has a new album dropping this Tuesday called Safe In The Steep Cliffs.

It’s a hazy panorama of bucolic dreamscapes traversed with lazy-day tempos. The most impressive part is the obvious care and attention paid to the percussion throughout every song. Emancipator offers a vast selection of richly layered drums. Not only are they dynamic and full of depth, but they’re substantive in composition with interesting meters, numerous polyrhythms and more. As for the melodic elements, he presents a looped style of live instrumentation, but rarely allows them to linger long enough to outstay their welcome.

Overall, the album is comprised of a folksy, organic sound palette, sparking visions of rolling plains and pine tree canopies. You might refer to it as heartland trip hop.

The effort is a well defined improvement over his first release, Soon It Will Be Cold Enough. That album shared many elements with Cliffs, such as its pace, foundation of instruments, and atmosphere. But it was hard to distinguish one song from another. Steep Cliffs solves this by adding a significant stock of new sounds and instruments to differentiate each track. Occasionally that means it slips into the loungey wing of downtempo and even touches on the fringes of smooth jazz. But on the whole, it serves to utilize more colors from the spectrum.

The beauty of much of this album comes in the details. With each listen, something new is there to be found within it’s subtle depths. But that may be missed by a lot of listeners, given its relaxed pace. It doesn’t demand the listener’s attention, allowing them to tune in whenever they feel like it. The tracks also sometimes break off into spacey ambiance where thoughts roam wild, breaking concentration on the details.

But those breakdowns are exemplary of why some of the tracks are so good. They are the valleys of a diverse landscape that also features rolling plains and steep cliffs.

You might have heard tracks off the album on some of our previous mixes. Title track “Safe In The Steep Cliffs” was on the Downbeat Treaty and “Ares” on Dourbeat (both of these tracks remain the CS picks of Steep Cliffs). He recently posted “Cliffs” for free download, so grab that below. Painting by Frederick Edwin Church.